


See You Around, Gunslinger

by NezzKind



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-24
Updated: 2016-09-24
Packaged: 2018-08-17 02:56:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8127712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NezzKind/pseuds/NezzKind
Summary: After the battle with Ripley, Percival finds himself in an unfamiliar place.





	

** See You Around, Gunslinger **

_By Nezz_

_._

_The man didn’t know where he was._

_All that he knew, was that he was falling…_

_Deeper…_

_Farther…_

_Sinking into a dream so heavy, he might never wake again._

…

…

 ** _“Precival,”_** came a low, entrancing voice.

The man instinctively reached for his gun, but found nothing there. In his panic, he looked for anything to use as a weapon—Diplomacy wasn’t on his hand, his swords were gone, not even the sparest of his chemical reagents to use as makeshift alternatives were on his person.

 ** _“Percival,”_** the voice called again.

And out from the shadows, a porcelain face appeared. Its base as white as the moon on a clear night. With paint as black as a raven’s feather.

“…You?” Percy’s eyes went wide with recognition. “What are _you_ doing here?”

**_“You are under the wrong assumption, Percival. It is_ you _, who is paying his visit to_ me.”**

“What? Then I—“

His most recent memories came flooding in. He remembered the hot iron burning in his lungs. He never realized how much his guns hurt until then. The face of Anna Ripley, smiling with glee. And the shadowy demon, his former benefactor, standing over him in grim satisfaction.

The members of Vox Machina looked to him with dread in their eyes. Keylith held him in her arms, tears streaming down her face, screaming something he couldn’t quite hear. Vex swooped down on her broom—she let it crash to the ground when she came close enough.

_How strange. She loved that thing. I do hope I won’t have to make repairs to the seating._

A flash of light and Ripley was trapped in a ball of energy. Her face, which had been ecstatic a moment ago, then turned to one of unmitigated fear.

Shadows fell on her.

He could hear Scanlan invoking his name.

Vex, standing above—arrow pulled with fierceness in her eyes.

And then— _nothing._

“—Oh……I’m….dead.”

Percy looked to the Raven Queen and saw her mask give the briefest of nods.

He took a deep breath in, then out. He took another breath and felt his throat strain. The man shuddered and reached up to take his glasses off.

He didn’t have his glasses.

Percy’s hands covered his face and massaged his eyes.

**_“Your friends wish for your return.”_ **

Percy looked up with a start.

**_“My champion begs for your soul. His sister makes the same pleas, even offering to pledge herself to my service. The druid cries rivers that would flood the world. They have taken your body to Sarenrae’s Paladin. She too, implores her goddess for some sort of miracle. The goliath and the bard, stoic in their spare words. But they grieve as hard as the others do.”_ **

“Sounds about right,” Percy uttered, while hiding his face.

**_“Do you wish to return?”_ **

“What?”

**_“It is not the first time you or your friends have brought one of your companions back from the veil. Will you stand once more, Percival de Rolo?”_ **

Suddenly, a warm light glowed from Percy’s chest. 

He looked down and saw it was the necklace Pike left him with, now shattered from the fight with Ripley. From it, came echoes across worlds over. Voices all too familiar and dear to his heart.

_“Percy! Percy, please!!! You can’t leave us! You can’t leave me!!!”_

“Keylith.”

_“Percy? Darling, wake up. I know you’ll be grumpy, but for all our sake’s, just open your eyes…”_

“Vex.”

 _“Percival. We need you. We are_ not _done. You told me to never take my eyes off you. I will not look away now.”_

“Vax.”

_“Percy, can you hear me? Can you hear us?  If you can, follow our voices, and come back to us.”_

“Pike.”

_“Percy? I’ve asked all the others, if I could have your gun. They’re not saying anything, so I’m taking that as a sign that it’s cool.”_

“Scanlan!!”

_“But if you have a say against that—Well, you better say it, now.”_

“Scanlan….”

_“DAMN IT!!! WHY IS IT RAINING SO MUCH TODAY?!?!?!”_

“Grog.”

_“Percival…Brother….Come home. Come back to Whitestone. To our people. To me.”_

“Cassandra.”

**_“They love you, Percival. You are loved with such a sincerity and loyalty, it would make the gods envious.”_ **

“Does that make you envious, then?”

The Raven Queen went silent for a moment.

**_“……Yes. It does.”_ **

Percy bit his lip, trying not to smile. Not to show how happy he was at his friends’ and his sister’s affections for him.

“I never asked for it. None of it.”

He held Pike’s shattered necklace with a careful hand. His sole possession in this dark realm. The only thing to stay with him. Not his guns or any of his gadgets or contraptions. It was _this_ gift that stayed with him, and would accompany him for all eternity.

Percy clutched it and pressed it harder to his chest. The voices still rung from it as clear as day.

He looked up into the face of the Raven Queen once more.

“I am ready to go.”

A sad, but satisfied smile in his expression.

**_“Do you not wish to return?”_ **

“No,” he shook his head slowly. “I ended the evil I brought to the world. I fell in battle beside those dearest to me. I died with forgiveness in my heart— _a better man_. Something I never thought was possible.” Percy chuckled to himself a little. “I was so consumed by vengeance, blinded and broken by fate’s poor chance and the sick little games of gods and demons.”

His thoughts went to Vox Machina.

“But they showed me a different way. They showed me a _better_ way, and I found it in myself to forgive Ripley. Who’s hate I had for, would have _consumed_ me.”

Percy looked into the mask of the Raven Queen with defiance.

“YOU TOLD ME I WAS ALWAYS BROKEN!!! BUT BECAUSE OF THEM, I DIED _WHOLE!!!”_

The sound of feathers fluttered around them, like the great beat of giant wings. Percival could feel the darkness press on him. Unseen talons about to grasp his body.

**_“Yes, Percival. You died whole.”_ **

“…..Would you have let me return to them, if I had agreed?”

**_“No. Your time had come, and your life, lived. When the soul tires, it must rest. And your soul is a very wearied one indeed.”_ **

“Then, it is time. I go with no fear nor regret, with peace of mind.”

**_“Very well, Percival de Rolo. Welcome to the fold.”_ **

“Please, if you’re going to usher me into eternal oblivion, I’d hoped you’d at least have the proper manners to address me by my _full_ name.”

**_“You’re very_ vain _for a mortal.”_**

“Perhaps, I’ll fashion myself a matching deityship in the afterlife. Between you and I—hearing my name is one of my life’s greatest pleasures. It would only be fitting at the end of it. Now, if you would be so kind.”

**_“…….Percival Fredrickstein Von Musel Klossowski de Rolo the Third.”_ **

“ _Of Vox Machina.”_

**_“….Of Vox Machina.”_ **

Percy closed his eyes, as wings enveloped his body and talons wrapped around him, taking Percival to his next adventure.

 

 


End file.
